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"A model for historians and sociologists and . . . a standard to which all future research on technology will refer."—Daniel Bell, Harvard University
"Will be essential reading in the social history of the telephone for a long time to come."—Carolyn Marvin, author of When Old Technologies Were New
"Everybody uses the telephone; only Claude Fischer has thought about it. The telephone has liberated us from neighborhood boundaries. It lets us play and work together over long distances. Long before the computer, its communication potentials helped change our society. Claude Fischer documents the planned decisions—and the unplanned events—that made the telephone such an important instrument for connecting America."—Barry Wellman, University of Toronto
"Fischer confronts the most significant, but also the most difficult, question we can ask about a new technology—what differences did it make in the lives of its users?. . . Fischer alerts us to the complexities involved in the incorporation of a new technology into everyday life. The richness and sophistication of his analysis should caution us not to jump to easy conclusions about the effects of technological change."—Roland Marchand, UC Davis
Sommario
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
CHAPTER I
Technology and Modern Life
CHAPTER 2
The Telephone in America
CHAPTER 3
Educating the Public
CHAPTER 4
The Telephone Spreads: National Patterns
CHAPTER 5
The Telephone Spreads: Local Patterns
CHAPTER 6
Becoming Commonplace
CHAPTER 7
Local Attachment, I89D-I940
CHAPTER 8
Personal Calls, Personal Meanings
CHAPTER 9
Conclusion
APPENDIX A
Bibliographic Essay
APPENDIX B
Statistical Analyses of Telephone and Automobile Distribution
APPENDIX C
Telephone Subscription among Iowa Farmers, 1924
APPENDIX D
Summary of Expenditure Studies by Household Income
or Occupation
APPENDIX E
The 1918-1919 Cost of Living Study
APPENDIX F
Who Had the Telephone When?
APPENDIX G
Analysis of Advertisement Data
APPENDIX H
Statistical Analyses for Chapter 7
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Photograph section follows page 153
Info autore
Claude S. Fischer is Professor of the Graduate School in Sociology, and the author of To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City (1982) and The Urban Experience (1984).
Riassunto
The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. This title presents the social history of this vital technology - how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. It explores how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this manner.
Testo aggiuntivo
"Fischer's discussion of historiographic methods, insights into communication technology, and the use of positivistic and post–positivistic research can be an excellent model for technology education researchers. . . . America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 is an excellent work of historical research that can offer important STS insights for technology education."
